Field of the Invention
The present invention is drawn to folding supermarket shopping carts.
In supermarkets and similar establishments, carts are usually put at the disposal of the customers in order to facilitate collection and transportation of the products to be purchased.
Such carts have usually been manufactured as metal structures, consisting of welded bars and rods. This solution has recently been improved by means of plastic constructions.
The present invention concerns a supermarket cart of the plastic type. The rear wall of the carrying basket of these carts is on an assembly that permits it to swing from a joint at the top, thus allowing the insertion of one cart inside another while they are parked, so that the carts will take up a minimum amount of space.
The carrying basket of these carts requires a configuration that narrows toward the front, to make it possible to insert the carts into each other. It is therefore necessary for the width of the rear swinging wall to decrease toward the bottom. Due to the narrowing of the swinging back wall, openings are left at the bottom between the edges of said wall and the side walls of the basket through which objects from the load carried on the inside can fall.
In order to avoid these openings, a solution based on parts at right angles is known, as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/358,372 of the applicant.
Moreover, a seat for small children is often incorporated in the above-mentioned swinging rear wall of the cart basket, formed by two plates that form a folding and unfolding set which determine said seat. In known realizations, these seats are not very sturdy due to the fact that maintenance of the unfolded position is achieved solely by holding the top of the two parts that make up the seat.
In other matters, we find that there have been several attempts to place advertising on these carts, but none of these attempts has given a satisfactory final result.
In fact, in the case of metal carts, it is not possible to hang advertisements outside the side walls of the basket because it prevents one basket from being inserted into another, when one cart is placed behind another in storage.
Advertisements must then be placed solely at the front of the basket in these metal carts, which is insufficient, and therefore this solution has not been accepted.
In the case of plastic carts, the advertising signs are superimposed on the sides of the baskets, affixed by any adequate means. The arrangement overhangs said walls, creating the possibility of hang-ups when the carts are handled and friction when the carts are inserted into each other, which causes the advertising panels to deteriorate rapidly; as a result, this solution has not been duly accepted either.